The last major bird strike accident to a passenger flight was on 4 October, 1960, when an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed Electra turbo prop struck a flock of seagulls on leaving Boston’s Logan Airport and crashed killing 62 out of the 72 people on board.
It was later found that the birds had stopped three of the four engines.
Eyewitness accounts of the US Airways crash a short while ago in New York imply it had lost power in both engines before its departure from La Guardia airport ended in a gliding splash down in the freezing Hudson River. It is reported to have flown into a cloud of birds that had gathered near the end of its runway.
The speed with which the A320 was evacuated and all 148 people on board rescued by boats was captured in real time from many angles. Everything appears to have worked exactly as intended in emergency evacuation drills. The passengers standing on the wings almost looked like they were waiting for a train at peak hour. Except that it was -6C, and they had just left the bus, an Airbus.
7 Comments
Firstly, this is hardly a miracle – simply a combination of good fortune and skill. And secondly: where is the praise for the pilot who made it all happen?
I’m with Hugh Wichmann. The more we keep calling this a “miracle” the more we devalue training and professionalism in the aviation industry. 155 people lived on this day because a lot of people did what they were meant to do.
Brad Hicks got it right in his blog piece, It’s Not a M——F—ing “Miracle.” It’s Somebody’s JOB.
It’s a long ranty piece, but he makes the point well.
I wish more aircraft accident stories ended this way.
Just a couple of minor quibbles. My understanding is that the 1960 accident at Logan Airport claimed more lives than any other bird strike accident but that there have been other fatal accidents since. For example, in 1988 35 people died when an Ethiopian Airlines 737 hit a flock of birds and caught fire after crash landing.
http://www.int-birdstrike.org/Warsaw_Papers/IBSC26%20WPSA1.pdf
Also, I think the Electra hit a flock of starlings not a flock of seagulls.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,871791,00.html
I think those are fair points. Even Mayor Bloomberg is now talking about the co-pilot and the three cabin crew as well as the captain of the flight as being part of the professional team effort. But look at it this way. This is New York. There was no queue rage at the overwing exits. No-body got pushed into the river. Now that is a ‘miracle’.
And for an alternative perspective on the incident, try:-
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/01/17/us-airways-violates-federal-migratory-bird-laws/
Maybe all jet airliner pilots should become proficient at flying gliders.
As I recollect a previous ‘deadstick” landing by an airliners (was it an Airbus A310 in Canada) was Captained by a proficient glider pilot as is US Air’s Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger who was responsible for the safe landing in the Hudson River.
Peter Ricketts
Peter, you’re thinking of the Gimli Glider, a Boeing 767 which ran out of fuel at 28,000 feet in 1983. After gliding to a safe landing, it was returned to service and only made its last flight on 24 January 2008.